Grab our button!!

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.whatjeanlikes.com/search/label/aloha" title="Aloha Friday Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee419/whatjeanlikes/AlohaFridayBlogHopbutton.jpg" alt="Aloha Friday Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div&gt>

The Aloha Friday Blog Hop is more than a "Friday" hop, it's a way to share aloha and friendship to our fellow bloggers all weekend long!!  I consider this particular blog hop to be more of a weekend hop because Fridays are so hectic that a lot of people function on what we like to call "Hawaiian Time" here in Hawai'i which means they link up on Saturday or sometimes even Sunday which is just fine and dandy with me!  That's why I keep it open from Friday through Wednesday because I sincerely believe, the more the merrier!! 
Can you believe it's the 38th Aloha Friday Blog Hop?!  My how time flies!! 

Aloha Hoapili translates as Hello Close Friend. So, without further ado let me introduce you to this week's featured friend ...

Want a little taste of her blog? Check out these posts to find out what you've been missing: I Don't Need Thor's Hammer M is for .... Mama Leisha's Super Duper Bracelet Tutorial If you're not already a follower than you definitely should be! Now, let's link up and start spreading that Aloha shall we? Want your link to be one of the first people see?  Sponsor What Jean Likes by purchasing an ad space!! All Sponsors are automatically linked up! More info on becoming a sponsor {here}




Have the loveliest of weekends!!

Aloha,

Sometimes I feel like this truck stuck in the mud. Gotta push myself to achieve my goals.

So for those of you don't know, I've been on a juice fast since Sunday and it hasn't been the easiest experience of my life.  I was utterly exhausted and had the worst headache I've had in years.  (Think hangover of your life x 2!)  The smell of food made me want to cry and watching my son eat the things I miss so dearly was harder than I can say.  Days 1-3 were the worst of it, they were the days I absolutely didn't think I could continue on my juicing fast and that I should give it up and quit.  I decided to go to sleep instead of pig out on the oh so yummy spaghetti I made my son the night before and sheesh, I'm so glad I did.  On day 4 I woke up energized and ready to go.  It was like I drank four cups of coffee but without the jitters, no mood swings, no head aches, no pains.  It was wonderful.  I have to tell ya, it's day 5 now and I got the all clear from my doctor to go up to 60 days on this juice fast as long as I get blood tests every couple of weeks to make sure my levels are all healthy so I'm thinking this might be doable for me.  I know it seems extreme but it took a lot of years of extremely bad eating and no exercising to get me here and it's going to take rather extreme measures to get me back to normal.  I haven't been in a single digit dress size since middle school and I'm so ready to change that!

Extreme as it may be, I wasn't prepared for the exhaustion days 1-3 presented me with and I am so far behind on everything that I used to do at night like blogging, answering emails, following people and all of that.  I used to do most of my blogging at night and prepare ahead of time but the last few nights I got so tired so early that I ended up going to bed.  Normally I'm up into the wee hours of the morning doing my blog work so it's definitely an adjustment and I know I need more rest than I normally get so I have to figure out a balance.  So if you are awaiting a response to an email, a contest, a follow, or anything else, I'm so very sorry and I am literally working on all of that right this second to get back to all of you!!  Another superdy duper not-so-fun thing was having my email server crash on me for two days so I wasn't getting any email.  Frustrating! Thank goodness it's back online!

I'm about 9 lbs down from where I started on Sunday so it's worth it.  Thank you all for being so kind and understanding while I go through this adjustment period.  I hope all of you are having a lovely week!

Aloha,

Grab our button!!

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.whatjeanlikes.com/search/label/aloha" title="Aloha Friday Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee419/whatjeanlikes/AlohaFridayBlogHopbutton.jpg" alt="Aloha Friday Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div&gt>

The Aloha Friday Blog Hop is more than a "Friday" hop, it's a way to share aloha and friendship to our fellow bloggers all weekend long!!  I consider this particular blog hop to be more of a weekend hop because Fridays are so hectic that a lot of people function on what we like to call "Hawaiian Time" here in Hawai'i which means they link up on Saturday or sometimes even Sunday which is just fine and dandy with me!  That's why I keep it open from Friday through Wednesday because I sincerely believe, the more the merrier!! 
Can you believe it's the 37th Aloha Friday Blog Hop?!  My how time flies!! 

Aloha Hoapili translates as Hello Close Friend. So, without further ado let me introduce you to this week's featured friend ...
Want a little taste of her blog? Check out these posts to find out what you've been missing: Holiday Craft Photo Collage Hawaiian Style Ham and Cheese Sliders DOD's Birthday, and a (Resuscitated) Cake Fail If you're not already a follower than you definitely should be! Now, let's link up and start spreading that Aloha shall we? Want your link to be one of the first people see?  Sponsor What Jean Likes by purchasing an ad space!! All Sponsors are automatically linked up! More info on becoming a sponsor {here}

I've been back on track since the beginning of the new year, back on my diet and exercise regime, back to cutting down carbs and sugars and increasing the vegetables and fruit I eat.  I'm fat, no lie.  I need to lose weight.  I can romanticize it all I want but at the end of the day, regardless of the self confidence I have, I need to lose weight so I can stay healthy and live a long life.  Laziness and overeating are two of my main weak points.  I have been doing really well and I started exercising again (she says as she rubs her sore knee).  I really am amped for this change.

There's a reason I am a photographer and not the model, because I never felt comfortable in front of the camera, hence one or two photos of me on the web that I actually post.  My goal is not only to become more picture friendly, but to get to a healthy size...not thin but not as big as I am now.  And no, I don't have body dysmorphic disorder... I'm just a fat chick who needs to get in shape for myself and my son.

Anyhow, in this new year, I'm going to be posting a lot more of health centered posts and updates on my weight loss goals and all of that goodness.  My friend who works for Team Beachbody sent me this article about how many calories we should be consuming a day.  I found it truly helpful and I hope you will too.

Ask the Expert: How Many Calories Should I Be Eating?

By Denis Faye

Today I'm at work totally swamped. So much to do. So little time to get it all done.  Sigh. Thank goodness it's a Wordless Wednesday?  Are you "back to reality" yet?  My son goes back to school tomorrow and today he's with his grandma.  I'm strangely ready for him to go back to school.  Is that terrible of me?

I hope you all are having a fab Wednesday.  Gonna go link up on all the Wednesday blog hops during my lunch break.  Wanna know where I link up and party? On my sidebar I have every single blog hop button that I participate in. Check them out!! Oh and if you have a hop and want your button there, comment me and I'll come link up and add your button!!

So it's 2013 now... Can you believe it?  I seriously am having a hard time really grasping the fact that it's 2013.  To me it feels like I just graduated high school not long ago but turns out, that was thirteen years ago!!  I swear just a minute ago my son was a chubby baby in diapers and now he's eleven.  Where did the time go?

I don't know if it's just me, but it feels like as the years progress, time just flies by faster and faster. I remember my mother and even my grandma saying something similar when I was a kid.  Geesh, am I getting that old?  Growing up, time seemed to drag on and the school day took forever but now I barely get my work done and it's time to get about the rest of my day and prepare for picking up my son and cooking dinner.  Is time relative or is it really going by faster?  I read somewhere that the recent huge earthquakes like the one in Japan a couple years ago, caused the earth to slightly tilt on it's axis, shortening the day by milliseconds [interesting article about that here].  Is that why the days seem to fly by or is time just relative like everything else in life.

I could get all scientific and mention Einstein's theory of relativity but nah.... I'll skip that stuff, we all got enough of it in school.   I think all experiences in life are relative.  I laugh as I type this but I remember a funny quote from a rather cheesy movie called Deep Blue Sea where LL Cool J's character Preacher is talking to another character (Scoggins) about relativity...

Preacher: Einstein's theory of relativity. Grab hold of a hot pan, second can seem like an hour. Put your hands on a hot woman, an hour can seem like a second. It's all relative. 
Tom Scoggins: I spent four years at CalTech, and that's the best physics explanation I've ever heard. 

It's very true though.  Einstein was such a brilliant man. I have yet to find one experience in life where the general theory of relativity doesn't hold true.  If you really think about your life, didn't the painful, heartbreaking, difficult, and worrisome moments seem to take forever whereas the really enjoyable moments seemed to not last long enough?  Boy oh boy, the list of moments that dragged on seems to be longer than the moments that flew by as I reflect on it but I think I've had just about as much good in my life as I had bad.  I think most of us are this way.  It's just that the bad experiences suck so much, we reflect on them more and they take up more of our time and energy because we obsess or worry about it.

Imagine what life would be like if you spent as much time dwelling on the happy moments, the blessings, the joys as you do the struggles and the worries?  It really could change things so much in your life but man, it's hard to do!!  Sometimes I feel like an ingrate because I worry so much about the stresses and heart break, I forget how truly blessed I am.  I have had some nightmarish years that have passed and I am so happy to leave them behind.  2012 was not an easy year, it was full of heart break but in retrospect, it wasn't that bad.  I thought that New Years Eve would be a lonely and depressing day as the days before it were really hard days for me emotionally.  A friend came and surprised me and Alaka'i at the beach last night to watch the fireworks and presented me with an opportunity that I never even knew or guessed was possible.  I never thought he would ever be even the slightest bit interested in me but he loves my son (he's one of his coaches) and he was there for me through a difficult day on Sunday.  He presented me with the opportunity to be happy but to do so I had to leave the person from my past who was upsetting me so much recently in my past...easier said than done... I'm gonna blog more on this later after I have more time to really think about it and talk to both guys but yeah... decisions... now back to starting fresh.

I have an idea that I would like all of you to join me with.  It's a simple idea and probably easier said than done idea but a great one, at least I think it's great.  Look at that photo.  Look at how the cool aqua water is washing away 2012 as 2013 is now in the foreground.  Let's allow all the bad, all the negative, all the mistakes, all the embarrassments, all the shame, all the guilt, all the stress and all the agony of the 2012 and past years wash away and focus on the  year ahead and all the blessings we have in our lives right now.  Of course we will never forget the past and the bad, but let's stop dwelling on it and instead, focus on how lucky we all are to be alive and move forward.  Don't let past mistakes cripple you in the present or the future. We have to let go and move on.  I know not all of you have the same beliefs that I do but for me, it's a matter of "let go, let God".  I need to stop trying to outsmart God's plan for me and trust in Him and instead of worrying about all the bad that has past, focus on how truly blessed I am to be alive and with the ones I love.

I am truly thankful for every breath of life, for all my loved ones and for all of you. I know it sounds trite, but I really truly, to the depths of my soul, am thankful for each and every one of you who have followed this little blog of mine and I look forward to extending and growing my friendship with all of you as the year progresses.

Let's allow the bad of 2012 and all the years that have passed wash away and look forward to 2013 and all the opportunities ahead of us!! Let's make this the best year yet!!

Happy New Year my lovelies!!

Aloha,

I just wanted to wish all of you the very best in the new year.  I pray and hope for all of you to achieve all your goals and dreams or at least inch closer to them!!!   2012 was not the best year for me personally but I look forward to the year ahead and the exciting changes I have planned for my life.  I am so blessed to know you all and to be friends on this blogosphere and I look forward to growing friendships with all of you!!

Aloha,